This article was originally posted on the Anne Arundel County Patch: Click here

JB Jaeger is the head instructor at the Maryland Jeet Kune Do Academy near Fort Meade, Maryland, where he has taught self-protection skills to local civilians, law enforcement, and military personnel for the last seven years. This year, however, he was selected to join an elite team of tactical instructors to teach at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association Conference (ILEETA) in Saint Louis, Missouri. As a member of the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association Tactical Team, Jaeger assisted in teaching a crisis management tactics workshop to members of law enforcement departments from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and around the world.

The workshop focused on maintaining a focused mindset to help law enforcement officers prepare for conflict, focus during high stress situations, and come down and recover after a crisis. Lead by the president of the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association, Harinder Singh, the workshop also provided the officers with life-saving strategies for dealing with attackers armed with edged weapons in close quarter situations where the officers may not be able to deploy or have lost the use of their firearms. Jaeger has also provided the same strategies and training to members of Maryland law enforcement as well.

“We learned how to breathe, we learned how to visualize, we learned how to protect ourselves,” said a member of law enforcement who attended the Crisis Management workshop. “I’ve never felt so revitalized in my life. You have no idea what this is about until you have to push yourself, to find your limit, evaluate your limit, take your limit…and always be prepared.”

Jaeger began training in the martial arts as a young man and has been teaching Jeet Kune Do since 2010 and is the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association’s representative for the state of Maryland. Over the past seven years, he has focused on continual training with Harinder Singh and teaching classes focused on dynamic self-protection skills and strategies at the Maryland Jeet Kune Do Academy.

“It has been an incredible journey. To be able to help the men and women who risk so much daily to protect is extremely humbling. The thing that means the most to me is that not only do we teach them how to survive an edged weapon attack, but just as importantly we addressed how they can survive psychologically and spiritually through all of the constant stresses and conflicts they encounter, to be able to return home to their loved ones at the end of their tour.”Any law enforcement officer, military member, or civilian interested in training with Mr. Jaeger may contact him at 410-353-2387 or may e-mail him at sifujb@marylandjeetkunedo.com